Luke and I have been able to see a whole new side of Lusaka in the past couple months! Luke is training to run a marathon and I am running a half marathon In August! We have been running the back roads of our neighborhood which is situated right in the middle of Lusaka. It has made us appreciate our vehicle very much as the roads are quite rocky and busy! Nothing like dodging mini buses to wake me up on my 6am runs!!



It has been so neat to set a long term goal and work toward it with our team mates. There are 6 of us from Action Zambia that have signed up to run. The race is being held on the boarder of Zambia and Zimbabwe, where Victoria Falls divides the two countries (6 hours south of Lusaka). The race is August 29th and we are using this opportunity to raise money for our church retreat center Ciyanjano! This center is a long term goal at Action Zambia and we are asking that you consider sponsoring us to run this race from which all the proceeds will go toward the current building projects. We have 5 chalets that are under construction, toilets, covered meeting area, a football field and dreams of a playground and much more.




Ciyanjano in Nyanja means “fellowship”! Our goal for Ciyanjano is to be able to provide churches a facility for them to hold camps, conferences and a getaway from the city at a cost that is not cost prohibitive to even the most impoverish churches here in Zambia. We want them to develop their friendships with each other but most of all with their Savior! There is such a need for a development like this and we have many churches that have been using our facility although the building is not complete!

Ciyanjano is only 15 minutes outside of Lusaka and so many of the poor in this society have never been given access to a facility like this located in such close proximity to their homes . Schools have their breaks during the months of December, April and August and many churches have camps for the kids during this time. A large majority of these children cannot afford to go because of the traveling and boarding expenses. Ciyanjano is the answer to this problem and for just a small cost churches will never have to turn away another child.



We are so excited about all that God is doing and going to do through this retreat center! We hope you can catch the vision of Ciyanjano and the huge benefit it will be to so many of our brothers and sisters in Christ here in Lusaka and surrounding villages!

If you would be interested in partnering with Action Zambia and the Ciyanjano Retreat Centre by sponsoring either Luke or I you have a couple different options available to you. Please check out the race website: www.kilometersforkids.info/ where you can opt to donate online or you can print out the attached brochure and snail mail your donations in that way (Action International’s mailing address is displayed on the brochure). All donations are of course tax deductable through Action International Ministries (please disregard the disclosure on the brochure about 80% of donations being tax deductable as this only applies to runners coming over from the US, any donation given in our names will be 100% tax deductable). For more information about the Ciyanjano Retreat Centre and opportunities to get involved you can visit the official website at: www.ciyanjano.org/ .



Please pray for our endurance and perseverance as we have 7 more weeks of training! We look forward to hearing from you! Thank you!



Elise for the Whitfield’s!